What do you do with a problem? Especially one that follows you around and doesn't seem to be going away? Do you worry about it? Ignore it? Do you run and hide from it? This is the story of a persistent problem and the child who isn't so sure what to make of it. The longer the problem is avoided, the bigger it seems to get. But when the child finally musters up the courage to face it, the problem turns out to be something quite different than it appeared.
- Faiza (NSW)
"Plastic bags don't belong in the sea!" Everybody has a taste for Stanley, but he is no ordinary jellyfish. Most jellyfish have dangly-gangly tentacles, but Stanley has two handles, other jellyfish have a magical glow, but Stanley has stripes... A powerful message about plastic pollution from an environmental expert.
- Jamie (NSW)
3— Dreamers by Yuyi Morales
Caldecott Honor artist and six-time Pura Belpré winner Yuyi Morales's gorgeous picture book is about making a home in a new place. Yuyi and her son Kelly's passage from Mexico to the US was not easy, and Yuyi spoke no English whatsoever at the time. But together, they found an unexpected, unbelievable place: the public library. There, book by book, they untangled the language of this strange new land, and learned to make their home within it.
- Sharon (QLD)
The Trojan War has ended after ten long years, and Odysseus, the shrewd general of Ithaca, is on the road back to his homeland. He craves nothing more than to embrace Penelope, his wife, and Telemachus, his son. But his actions in the War will earn him the rancour of the mighty ocean god Poseidon, who will force him to roam the sea and face the most incredible challenges. Can the brave hero, with his unparalleled audacity, evade the fury of the Cyclops Polyphemus, the tempting song of the Sirens and the spells of Circe to return home? (Shared with a Year 9 class)
- Adrienne (NSW)
Meet 11-year-old Bindi. She’s not really into maths but loves art class and playing hockey. Her absolute FAVOURITE thing is adventuring outside with friends or her horse, Nell. But this year hasn’t gone to plan! There’s a big art assignment, a drought, a broken wrist AND the biggest bushfires her town has ever seen! This is a verse novel for mid-upper primary students. Written ‘for those who plant trees’, from the point of view of 11-year-old and her friends on Gundungurra Country, this book explores climate, bushfires, and healing.
- Kylie (NSW)
Many people from many places have come across the seas to make Australia their home. How Australian is that? From countries near and far, many have made their home in Australia, sharing it with the original inhabitants, and living in peace beneath the Southern Star. Mem Fox celebrates Australia's incredible multicultural heritage in this beautiful book illustrated by Ronojoy Ghosh.
- Lenore (VIC)
Using the accounts of early European explorers, colonists and farmers, Bruce Pascoe compellingly argues for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer label for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. He allows the reader to see Australia as it was before Europeans arrived — a land of cultivated farming areas, productive fisheries, permanent homes, and an understanding of the environment and its natural resources that supported thriving villages across the continent.
- Haeli (VIC)
8— The Calm Book by Alex Allan and Anne Wilson
This is a friendly and engaging picture book to help young children understand their feelings using simple science. Featuring mindfulness tips, breathing exercises and calming craft activities that give children the ability to take charge of their own emotional state and the tools to become more resilient. Written in consultation with child psychotherapist Sarah Davis, the book is full of playful, interactive coping strategies that will help children to examine their anxieties in a fresh, objective way, and move towards overcoming them.
- Sarah (NSW)
An iceberg is born into spring and travels through the seasons before dying in a new spring. A stunning, lyrical story for our times, from renowned picture book creators Claire Saxby and Jess Racklyeft. In the final freeze of an Antarctic winter, green tails wave across a star-full sky, as if to farewell endless nights. If this world looks empty, look closer. Penguins trek across the ice to their winter homes. As the temperature warms, birds fly above on their long migrations. And with the advent of summer, beneath an iceberg, the sea is teeming with life. Ocean, sky, snow and ice - minute greens and giant blues - dance a delicate dance in this evocative portrayal of the life cycle of an iceberg.
- Maddison (NSW)
Rodney was a rabbit who loved nothing more than drawing. He never found it tiresome, tedious or boring. But then one day, disaster struck, the one thing Rodney feared, while working at his drawing desk his pen just... disappeared! A truly hysterical search for a missing pen, by award-winning author Michael Gerard Bauer.
- Brigid (QLD)
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